Society and the professional world continue to evolve and change with the growth of technology. This, in turn, has had a tremendous impact on the educational sphere, leading to several growing trends in the world of education. For educators to engage their students, they must remain abreast of these latest changes and key factors that affect learning in the classroom. Their understanding of these trends can help them create more effective learning environments.
As teachers prepare themselves to implement these latest education developments, here are the five most important trends with which they should familiarize themselves.
1.Hybrid Learning is Staying
If you thought that hybrid learning was just for the ongoing pandemic, you may need to think again. School districts have spent an enormous amount of money on online education in the last two years, and they are going to want to get the most out of their investment in 2022. All this means that a blended learning model – a mixture of online and face-to-face teaching – becomes both more appealing and more feasible. The online platform has helped teachers to change how they teach.
They might find it challenging to change how they approach lesson plans to ensure that the students remain engaged even while they cannot see the instructor in person. The online nature of these courses may also improve the ability of teachers to offer accommodations for different styles of learning. Advanced students may receive additional learning resources and challenges to encourage them to go deeper into the material without interrupting the flow of the rest of the class.
2.Soft Skill Training
On the opposite end of the gamut, class quarantines and lockdowns have also taught us the importance of face-to-face human connection. While it might feel obsolete to teach the art of a good handshake, it’s important to prepare students for real-world scenarios like job interviews, conflict resolution, and building relationships. Helping students hone their soft skills like public speaking, communication, teamwork, and time management will set them up for success in their futures. These educators will need to find a way to balance the screen time involved in their class with the importance of encouraging students to work together face-to-face to nurture soft skill development.
The institutions that uncover quality formulas for encouraging the development of these skills, however, will find that this trend offers them several growth opportunities. Specifically, these institutions will find themselves with a competitive advantage within higher education.
3.Personalized Learning
Personalized learning has long been the dream of education preachers, and the pandemic has brought it closer than ever to becoming reality. Measures to ease the transition to home learning saw more devices put into children’s hands and teachers creating an unprecedented number of digital resources.
If we’ve known for ages that all students learn differently, how can we employ that knowledge to better serve our students? The answer is personalization. Whether it’s via choice boards, flexible student projects, or simply giving your students more agency in what they’re learning day in and day out, you can expect to hear more about personalized learning throughout 2022.
4.Gamification
Greater use of technology in the classroom will lead to wider use of games in teaching and learning. This will also include an element of students creating their content and collaborating, as well as teachers using resources created by game designers, giving students sufficient challenge to keep them interested. Games are also an effective way of reaching students who have spent much of the last two years not just learning online, but socializing online too.
5.Analytic Learning
Speaking of analytics, one of the biggest education trends for 2022 we’re seeing is learning analytics. In other words, how can you use student data to improve their learning? Beyond grades on assignments and tests, do a deep dive into your students’ performance. For example, you can find out how much time students spend watching your videos and which parts they rewatch, not to mention if their answers were right or wrong. Think about ways to measure your students’ engagement, like exit surveys or interaction with extension materials. Teachers who want to focus more on student development rather than simply knowledge delivery will find this new model to be intensely rewarding.
To Conclude
Instead, earning a degree must be followed by ongoing learning. This requires institutions to create a self-development mindset in their students as well as their faculty and staff. Classrooms must leave opportunities for teaching self-learning skills so that students can continue to learn and engage in their chosen fields. The schools that learn how to master these skills, however, have the chance to remain connected with their ex-students throughout their careers. They can offer continual learning courses that will keep their former students engaged with the new development in their fields, and ensure that they keep coming back to the school for the support and education they need.
